Battery Prices

[Petervs]

Hi Gary,
When the batteries are new and have full capacity, they allow you to run on them for a long time. How long depends on what is running in the coach obviously. But as the batteries age, they do not just stop working instantly, rather they just have less and less capacity. Lifeline says they are good for about 500 charge/discharge cycles if I remember right.

I had my bus 5 years before I decided to replace the batteries and they were a year or two old when I got the bus. They were great all up until the last 6 months or so. Then time of usefulness was reduced by a factor of 3 or 4.

Put in the new ones and we are back to long runs between charges.

We can typically "dry camp" for 2 days on the batteries alone, assuming the outside temps are not extreme. This means running the fridge all the time, lights and TV in the evening, and misc stuff all during the days, and in our case usually the Webasto heater in the evenings and nights.

When the batteries needed replacing, we would have to fire up the generator after 10 hours or so. Our biggest indicator was to park overnight after driving in the afternoon. Run on batteries all evening and night, then wake up and there would not be enough energy in the batteries for the inverters to run the coffeepot. Now we can do that 2 days in a row without charging, no problem.

We have 6 4D batteries on the house side.

I have never run the equalize cycle. I think that is only for wet cells, but could be wrong.

[garyde]

I had wet cell batteries in my last coach and the xantrex control panel had the ability to equalize the batteries but you have to stay with the coach during the process and keep plenty of air circulation around the batteries because they will gas off. If you have wet cell type, you want to verify the batteries are still good before attempting to balance them.

[Larry W]

Battery Prices
Had been shopping for batteries for about 3 months. 8d Lifeline prices I found ran from $650 and on up to close to $800. Batteries Plus in Las Vegas price for 5 8D's last week was $499 each. Batteries Plus 65 miles from home quoted me $750 each. Found MK's at Battery Stuff in OR for $490 plus frieght.
Equalization
The Lifeline battery manual that came with my new batteries states that if the batteries need to be equalized the first step is to bring them to full charge and then charge at 15.2 volts for 8 hours. Question is how does one know when they need equalizing? I did equalize the wet cell batteries on the plastic coach I used to own and never really saw much difference.

[mikedee]

Call MK direct in So Cal.

They delivered 6, Type 8D AGMs to me for about 320.00 Ea. with tax. This was about 6-9 months ago. I sold my 6 Lifeline to the scrap yard for $110.00. I have been totally happy with the batteries and company.

[truk4u]

Gary - DO NOT equalize unless there wet cell......

Peter - OK, what's the secret? Even with 6 fresh 4 d's out of the box in my Marathon running the basics as you stated, I would be at 50%, 12.2 volts in about 12 hrs. I have about the same thing going on with my CC and my house is 12v running on 6 8 d's. How in the world do you get 2 days out of them. Solar panels maybe?

I didn't even run the framulator!

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

I got this info off of the Lifeline web. "There are a lot of different opinions about battery charging and we hope this will help clear up any confusion that our customers have. AGM batteries are still technically a lead acid battery and they charge very similar to a wet cell. Regardless of what some rumors portray, AGM batteries are not as sensitive as once believed. They often get confused with Gel Batteries, which are very sensitive to voltage and they need a special charger. Lifeline AGM batteries can also be equalized to regain capacity if need be (instructions for equalizing is listed below)"
http://www.lifelinebatteries.com/cha...procedures.php

So I am still confused if I should equalize or not. Will follow up next directly to Lifeline, and let everyone know what I found out.

Thanks

[Petervs]

Hi Tom,
No solar panels, well a small one that keeps the generator battery full, only.

We run the house batteries down to 10.9 volts. That is considered a full discharge. Everything works fine up to that point.

Lifeline recommends fully charging and fully discharging. Of course, we might not be down that low if it is a shorter time, and then you fire up the bus to go somewhere, and the alternator charges the house right back up form a partial discharge, This happens all the time, and i do not worry about it.

If you recharge at 12.3 volts, well we would be there in 10 hours or less too I suppose. I do not use the generator auto start. It should be renamed "Auto Startle" and I do not like being startled.

[merle&louise]

Peter,

I remember hearing someone say that when the batteries get down to 12.0v that you have a dead battery. Obviously that is incorrect since you run yours down to 10.9 v. I have been running mine down to 12.2 and then starting the generator. It takes about 18 hours to run mine down to 12.2; using the refrigerator, lights, TV, coffee pot, etc. I have 6 AGM 8Ds for the house that were new in January 2006.

[dalej]

Peter I know this goes againt what people say but I opperate our batts the same way as you. I don't have any fancy bells that go off when I hit 12.2 but use them until I notice things running slower. I then check the volts and it is usually in the 10.5 to 11.5 range. I just put new batteries in last week. The last time was April of 1999. We use 4 8D's

[rbeecher]

Peter,

I remember hearing someone say that when the batteries get down to 12.0v that you have a dead battery. Obviously that is incorrect since you run yours down to 10.9 v. I have been running mine down to 12.2 and then starting the generator. It takes about 18 hours to run mine down to 12.2; using the refrigerator, lights, TV, coffee pot, etc. I have 6 AGM 8Ds for the house that were new in January 2006.

Tuga,

Didn't we hear that from Nick from Centurion? in his Kerrville tech session? I can check my notes at the house tonight. I paid attention to that part because the dip switches on the VOGUE are/were set at 13 something. The '02 Marathon has an alarm go off at 10.9 and a minute or two later, but not until after we have been awakened from a dead sleep at 3 a.m., the auto gen kicks in.

Richard Beecher
2002 Marathon XLII 45
1996 VOGUE XL 40 FOR SALE